Prior to 1854 schools were private or parochial. These schools paved the way for public education.

The Mississippi Territory legislature in 1811 charter Washington Academy (St. Stephens)which was exempt from taxes, and give the right to raise $5,000 by lottery. The following year Green Academy at Huntsville was chartered.

The Enabling Act which allowed for the admission of Alabama as a state into the union required the sixteenth section of land in each township should be given to the people of the township for the use of schools and two townships should be reserved for a seminary of learning.

Alabama's first constitution in 1819 provided that "...schools and the means of education, shall forever be encouraged in this state..."Under this mandate the legislature passed an act December 17, 1819 providing for the election of agents in each township whose duty it was to protect the school lands and lease them under the conditions prescribed by the act and to apply the proceeds to the... "purpose of education alone." These agents were made trustees with power to employ teachers, erect school houses and to exercise general control over the schools in their township.

Some schools were operated as a public school part of the year, (usually three of four months). The income from public lands would defray these expenses. The school would continue as a private school for the rest of the year with students whose parents could pay.

The act of 1826 made education the public's responsibility and created a Board of School Commissioners.

1836 Barton Academy was built for a cost of $100,000. $50,000 was raised by lottery.

Upon completion Barton Academy was rented to a private school and the proceeds $1,000 placed in the public school fund. This money was then distributed among different parochial schools by the school board. No public schools were provided.

The first Monday in November 1852 the first public school in the state of Alabama, Barton Academy in Mobile was opened with 400 students enrolled.

Male and female classes were established in each grade and were separated by halls. Free tuition was granted to those pupils who could not pay. The law enacted for Mobile County applied only to the children of the white race.

The first coordinated state public school systems in Alabama was in 1854.